“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28
In this verse, God doesn’t promise to turn a bad thing into a good thing. Nor does he promise to keep bad things from happening to us. However, he is promising to bring good out of any situation for those who love God.
Difficulties will happen, even when we’re following God and walking by his Spirit. We live in a broken world where broken things happen. However, when difficulties come, we can be confident that God is working to bring about our ultimate good.
We don’t always recognise what is good for us, especially when circumstances aren’t working out the way we desire. We think our good is comfortable circumstances, but God desires our spiritual growth. The verse continues with, “he chose them to become like his Son so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29).
God is making us like his Son, and sometimes this is painful. Nevertheless, being like Jesus is a good thing and gives us hope. Paul writes, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:3-5).
God is developing our character to strengthen our confident hope of salvation. Our hope doesn’t come from favourable circumstances, but rather from God, who is working for our ultimate good.
Other posts on this topic here.
